Alternatives to the Industrial Model

“What we’re moving toward,” Horn says, “is the realization that if our expectation is to educate every single child successfully, then we need structures that can individualize and personalize, and there’s no way to do it in the way we have historically approached this.” ( Davis ) We need options.   It seems that digital access offers learners the freedom and resources they need to maximize their learning potential.  But, what about those among us for whom the digital age symbolizes a loss of the tactile and a disconnect with the real world around us?  Aside from the reams of information and entertainment offered by Internet access, the increasingly sedentary lifestyle partly attributable to our global addiction to the screen – what about the learner who just doesn’t connect with computers?  What about the notion of Nature Deficit Disorder?  What about all of the research and writing that went into books like Nabhan and Trimble’s The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild

For decades educators have been searching for ways to individualize education, researching methods for students to explore their own interests at their own pace. Unfortunately, our traditional structure of education makes this difficult. Even Vinny Chase from Entourage understands that we do not all learn the same, nor do we all have the same learning objectives,      Vince: So, how’s it look?      E: Your grammar’s horrible.      Vince: Who cares?      E: We were in the same class since we were six,         it’s shocking to me that you can’t punctuate.      Vince: E – it’s all stream of consciousness.      Turtle:  You can’t really spell either Vinn.                 Faithful is f-a-i-t-h-f-E-l.      E: No, it isn’t.      Johnny: It’s O-l      E: No, it isn’t      Johnny: So says you.      E: Are you guys all illiterate? Mrs. Carbonne would         shoot herself if she could hear this. Although traditional schooling worked for E., apparently Mrs. Carbonne’s English class w

It is often accepted that the advent of film led to a decline in the popularity of theatre. The movies and the stage are vastly different mediums, often identified by film’s ability to transcend time and place versus the physical presence of the actors in theatre.  It would be hard to argue against the success of film over the past century.  The talkies have become an unbelievably lucrative business while theatre, with few exceptions, relies on philanthropy for its survival. Could it be that online learning and the traditional classroom hold a similar relationship? As the Fringe Festival gestures on and the tents of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan continue their white summer silhouettes by the riverside, the question seems timely.  The classroom may soon attain the nostalgic status of live theatre.  Like the writers who moved from New York to Hollywood, teachers will shift from schools to laptops, complaining as their predecessors did in theatre about the dumbing down of

Consider the MOOC.  No, not Douglas Rushkoff’s Mook from Jackass - the MOOC.  Massive Online Open Course.  Less obnoxious, less male. In 1991 John Taylor Gatto published an article titled “ The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher ”.  The piece outlined six tenants of schooling that Gatto claimed were universal in traditional schooling.  If you haven’t read it - please do.  Click on the hyperlink.  Trust me.  You’ll laugh. Now, we know from Craig Watkins that to successfully master technology, access is not enough - scaffolding, mentoring and modelling are all necessary to increase learning potential.  And, one of the great travesties in education is the hierarchical access to learning around the globe.   Since this hierarchy leads to less mentorship for lower income learners, we need an alternative.   If we agree that the alternative also has to respond to Gatto’s six lessons - we must consider the MOOC:  1) Stay in the class where you belong MOOCs do not classify by age and abi

Remember this guy?   His assertions garnered a deluge of responses - many countering his claims that post-secondary schooling was getting in the way of his education. Perhaps Dan Brown should have a look at the University of the People, a tuition-free online University.        Harnessing multiple pedagogical models, UoPeople changes the way        in which education can be accessed. We utilize open source technology      and open educational resources to provide access to educational material      from some of the most prominent institutions. Distance learning allows those      in all corners of the world to access information.( HuffingtonPost ) University of the People believes that online learning is the way to offer access to higher education for millions of people in developing nations. They believe that education can build a road away from poverty and oppression. There is an ‘application fee’ and an ‘exam fee’ each of which cost between $10 and $100 each depending on

The Ideology of choice, on which capitalism is structured, prevents social change. So, is my advocation of multiple systems for learning simply an ingrained capitalist desire for choice?  And, by doing so am I undermining the stability of the current system that offers little choice?   And, does the current system, by offering little to no choice help alleviate anxiety in youth? According to Professor Selecl, Choice creates anxiety in the three ways: 1) We choose what other people are choosing If I simplify Prof Selecl's argument I can see that students, due to peer pressure, elevated need for belonging etc, almost always choose what the other students are choosing.  Peer pressure in teens is well documented and perhaps if given the opportunity to choose a learning system, students would end up not in the system that suits their educational needs, but the one that their friends are in.  This would most likely lead to a student body as anxious as the one we already h

In Canada there is a long tradition of learning on the road.  For generations young people have developed leadership skills from the hull of a canoe as they explore the country's lakes, rivers and forests.  Education on the move has led to wonderful progressive programs like Class Afloat  and the Expedition Education Institute that just re-opened in the United States.  At the re-launch gathering  many of the alumni present spoke of their transformative experiences spending multiple semesters travelling on converted school buses to every corner of North America learning from the land and people they visited. Increasingly, the advances in digital media are freeing us to allow mobile connectivity at all times. Rather than seeing less of these programs, I would expect to see more.      I recently read an article by Richard Sagor who used skateboarders as an example of an independently motivated group collaboratively seeking mastery through focused repetition and failure. Sagor clai

--> In order to provide the best system of education, you need the best educators.  This is something that the Saskatchewan Party failed to understand in its insistence that teachers in Saskatchewan do not deserve a substantial wage increase because there is not a shortage of workers.  It seems to me that their basic market economy supply and demand thinking is not very progressive.  Should an Education degree guarantee you a job?  The Equity School in the United States does not think so and they underline this by offering high wages to teachers. The Equity Project , is premised on the theory that excellent teachers — and not revolutionary technology, talented principals or small class size — are the critical ingredient for success. Experts hope it could offer a window into some of the most pressing and elusive questions in education: Is a collection of superb teachers enough to make a great school? Are six-figure salaries the way to get them?  To a certain extent this makes sense.

We’ve seen it before, it has been everywhere this year.  He is a wonderful speaker and he makes excellent points about schools and their tendency to kill what they allegedly strive to foster.  Why though, did school boards choose to show this as a way to motivate teachers?  Personally, I found it depressing.  How is someone pointing out the gaping flaws in a structure so firmly rooted in society meant to motivate the employees destined to kick off another school year struggling within its confines? If you haven't seen it, watch it here: In a society where we cannot even alter the funding of Catholic schools, making dramatic change to the industrial model seems unlikely. Fireside Adventure   is a summer program for teens.  It has no buildings and tailors programs to meet the needs of its youth.  It offers an education in outdoor stewardship and leadership skills.  I guarantee it is an experience that builds memories and social awareness that government schools do not.  Fireside Adve

Calgary Science School   A school whose philosophy claims to bring the natural world and the digital together, "infused with ubiquitous access to laptops, an exciting environmental and outdoor education program".  I wonder if this is possible.  I wonder if there is truly something unique happening here, or is this simply a traditionally modelled school with access to money and permission to deny unwanted students entry. The web-page confirms a 'placement test' and waiting list of over a thousand students.  It is a publicly funded school and so unlike the private model should avoid some of the issues of a tiered education system based on parental income that exists in the UK and United States.  A look at the Calgary Science School blog suggests great things are happening.  In fact, it is a site full of ideas and worth exploring: http://calgaryscienceschool.blogspot.com/ Is this school truly something different?  I don't know, I would like to arrange a visit in the

In true hypocrite fashion I am beginning this analysis by looking at a couple of programs in the U.S..  Despite years of ranting about the inability of Canadians to consider models outside of North America, and our insistent comparisons to alternatives south of the border, even when models are clearly inferior to our own or others is infuriating.  I will begin here, but promise to cast a broader net moving forward. I have been curious about Charter schools for a long time, particularly because they offer the promise of diversity.  Charter schools are an opportunity within public education to offer something different from the current replicated model.  They offer hope for variation, experimentation and an opportunity to put into practise some of the theoretical ambitions that are so often constrained by the regulations of traditional structures. A couple of interesting quotations about Charter schools in the U.S. that I feel are worth exploring. "Charter schools offer a way to emb

I was sitting in my accreditation course last week with a room full of Saskatchewan teachers, some of whom still consider Wikipedia to be the devil and many who think Facebook inherently evil. During one discussion, the idea of changing methods of education afforded by evolving technology was introduced. After some debate, the idea that online and blended learning could mean the death of schools as we know them arose. One of my colleagues offered up the notion of schools without sports teams or cafeterias, where students come and go on radically different schedules. This brought up the well-documented ‘fear of change’ response from many in the room. Perhaps ‘fear for our jobs’ was more likely.      I was immediately reminded of John Taylor Gatto and his works  Dumbing Us Down The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling  and  The Underground History of American Education  where he ties learning systems to the industrial revolution. Just as industry has spread from its assembly line m